(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a document processing and managing system, a document processing-managing apparatus, a document processing apparatus, a document processing-managing method, a document processing method and a computer readable medium.
(ii) Related Art
An electronic document created by using a computer is distributed to each user and is utilized for reading, printing and edition. Thus, information is transmitted and shared.
Referring to the distribution of the electronic document, various techniques have been proposed.
A user to utilize a distributed electronic document through a document processing such as reading, printing or edition is divided into a first user acquiring the electronic document from a distribution source of the electronic document and a second user acquiring the electronic document through the first user (which includes a second user making an acquisition from the first user and a third user making an acquisition from the second user).
A provider of the electronic document predicts the utilization of the first user and sets a utilization permission for permitting the electronic document to be read or edited, thereby restricting a document processing which can be carried out for the electronic document. However, the provider cannot specifically grasp the second user. For this reason, it is hard to carry out a proper restriction to the second user.
In many cases, moreover, a user grasped really by the provider is the first user. In some cases, the provider wants to permit a free utilization to some degree. When the restriction for the second user which is substantially hard to manage is not carried out, however, a wrong utilization of the electronic document or an unauthorized utilization is apt to be generated
However, in the case in which there is carried out a restriction for prohibiting all of document processings to be carried out by the second user, for example, a business person in charge belonging to an organization to be a distribution source of an electronic document cannot utilize the electronic document when an administrator of the organization is the first user. For this reason, in the case in which the document processing is restricted for the electronic document to be distributed, it is necessary to take the second user into consideration.
It is hard for the provider of the electronic document to previously grasp all of the second users and to distribute the electronic document. For this reason, it is possible to propose a method of causing the first user to set the utilization permission of the second user. In this method, however, the provider cannot manage the second user.
Therefore, it is desirable to employ a method of restricting the document processing of the electronic document by the second user even if the provider of the electronic document does not specifically grasp the second user. However, the technique has not been proposed yet.